


Have a Little Faith

by BookedbyFandoms, delicatelyglitterywriter



Series: The Fluffverse: Peggy and Bucky Fitzsimmons [5]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fitzsimmons Fluffverse, Gen, fsfv
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-15
Updated: 2017-05-15
Packaged: 2018-11-01 01:19:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10911366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookedbyFandoms/pseuds/BookedbyFandoms, https://archiveofourown.org/users/delicatelyglitterywriter/pseuds/delicatelyglitterywriter
Summary: Parenting is not an easy job. It requires a lot of patience, and a whole lot more faith. This is the story of how Mack and Elena learnt this lesson while raising their two children.Chapters will not be in chronological order. Ages will be posted at the start of each chapter.





	1. Hope

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies for this story going up and down like a yoyo (pun fully intentional); we ran into a few technical difficulties. But it is up and will remain up :)

“No! Mack! I can’t do this!”

Elena’s hand was gripping his so tight her knuckles were white. Mack was surprised that his hand wasn’t broken yet.

“Yes you can, Yoyo,” he soothed. “You’ve got this, you’re doing great.”

He meant those words. She really was doing great. He was the one who wasn’t doing so great. The last time he’d been in this position was eleven years ago, with Nicole.

* * *

_Nicole let out a loud cry of pain, unable to even form words. Her brow was glistening with beads of sweat, and her breathing was heavily laboured._

_“Mack,” she whispered out, clutching his hand in hers. He was sure that one or two bones had snapped, but he didn’t care. His wife needed his hand, and he was going to give it it her._

_“I-I can’t do this,” she wheezed out, gasping for air. Mack placed his other hand over hers._

_“Yes, you can Nicole. It’ll be okay. You’re going to be just fine. It’s okay.”_

_“One more push!” the doctor encouraged, and Mack nodded at Nicole. She drew in a massive breath, squeezed her eyes shut and pushed with all her might. A few seconds later, the child was out, and immediately scooped up by the doctors and nurses. Nicole flopped back._

_“Mack?” she breathed out, her eyes resting shut out exhaustion._

_“You did it, baby. You gave birth.”_

_Nicole opened her eyes and weakly smiled at him. He returned the smile, kissing her on her forehead._

* * *

 

Elena let out a long scream as she gave the final push and their child slid out. Elena flopped back, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly. Mack watched as the child was scooped up by the doctors and nurses and taken to be checked out.

“Mack?” Elena asked, her voice weary. Mack echoed his words from eleven years ago.

“You did it, Yoyo. You gave birth.”

She smiled and nodded at him, her eyelids drooping shut. Mack leaned over and kissed her forehead as she dozed off.  He then sunk down in the chair, feeling really quite tired.

Seventeen hours’ labour was a nightmare.

* * *

  _Mack didn’t know it was possible for a woman to be in labour for this long Thirty stinking hours. Nicole had already cried herself out twice. It was incredibly draining for not only Nicole, but for Mack, too. But they both pressed on, and now it was worth it._

_They had a beautiful little girl._

_Nicole was sleeping, and Mack was waiting for the doctors to bring her back. He rolled his hand around a little bit and winced. His hand had a Nicole-shaped bruise on it, and he was pretty sure a couple of his bones were fractured. But it didn’t matter._

_They had a daughter._

_The doctor came back in just as Nicole was starting to stir. Mack ran his uninjured hand down her cheek. She murmured happily._

_“Is our baby alright, doc?” Nicole asked wearily, pushing herself to sit up. The doctor pursed his lips._

_“‘Alright’ is a bit of a stretch,” the doctor admitted. He didn’t waste any words in telling them that their child had been born with respiratory and heart complications, and that they weren’t sure if she was going to make it._

_Mack bit his lip to keep from crying. They’d tried for years to have a child, and now that they had one, the thought of her not making it almost crushed him. It was Nicole’s next words that made it an almost._

_“Hey, Mack, it’s okay. We’ve got to have hope. She’ll be our Hope.”_

_Mack managed a small smile. “Yeah. Yeah, I like that name. Hope.”_

* * *

 When Elena awoke, her first instinct was to reach for Mack. Mack responded by taking her hand in his.

“Hey, Yoyo. How you feeling?”

“Like my insides came out,” she moaned, letting out a big sigh.

“Well, technically your insides _did_ come out…” Elena whacked him weakly, although she was smiling.

“Aw, shut it, silly man.” Mack just smiled back at her.

The doctor came back in a few minutes later, and Mack resisted the urge to stand up. His heart was thumping inside his chest, each beat a silent prayer that his daughter was healthy this time.

“Is our baby alright?” he asked, keeping his voice steady. The doctor smiled at him, and nodded.

“She’s as healthy as healthy babies can be,” he said. “She’ll be in in just a minute, Yvette is just dressing her.”

Elena beamed at Mack, but she couldn’t compete with his grin.

* * *

  _Hope smiled up at Mack, making a weak gurgling noise. He smiled back down at her. Her smile, heck all of her, was just so damn beautiful. He held her close, as if holding her close could pull her through._

_“I love you.” It was the only thing he could think to say to her. He dared not ask her to pull through, for fear that if he did, she wouldn’t._

_So, instead, he just settled for a kiss on the top of her head, before putting her back down to let the doctors do their thing to try and save her._

_It was the last time he ever saw her._

* * *

 Mack felt like he could fly when their baby girl was brought in. The sound of her cries was the most beautiful sound Mack had ever heard. She was healthy. She was _alive_.

The child was placed in Elena’s arms, and Elena gently soothed her. Tears of joy and affection burned Mack’s eyes when he saw the amount of love Elena had for their baby, and the amount of love he had for her.

The baby soon stopped crying and squirmed slightly in Elena’s arms. She yawned, and it was just about the cutest thing Mack had ever seen. He coughed to hide his sniff, but Elena was fast enough to catch it. She smirked up at him.

“Is the big, tough man crying?” she teased, and Mack shook his head. He tried to respond playfully, but no words came out. He was far too overcome by the moment. Elena’s playful smile became affectionate, and she raised the baby towards him.

“Here. Give your daughter a hug.”

Mack took the child and held her close to his chest. She let out a gurgling noise and then smiled up at him. It _should_ have been like a stab in the heart, but it’s not. It only gives it an extra beat: a baby-sized beat.

“What are we going to name her?” Mack asked.

“Esperanza,” Elena answered, without missing a beat. Mack raised his eyebrows.

“Spanish name?” Elena nodded.

“It means ‘to hope’.”

Mack’s gaze snapped to Elena. Elena’s smile is small and kind, with a hint of mischievousness, as if she knew the name was perfect. Mack swallowed, hard.

“Hope?”

She nodded again, and Mack began crying again, holding Esperanza even closer. This was an act of God; giving him a second chance at being a father, a second chance at hope.

He looked back at his little girl and smiled through his tears. He said the only thing he could think to say to her.

“I love you.”


	2. The Ocean of Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's not easy being in love with your best friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Michael is seventeen, Esperanza is twenty. Peggy is also twenty.

Michael Mackenzie had down Peggy Fitzsimmons since he was one day old. She’d come and seen him in the hospital, and there was a framed photo of her holding him. In the picture, she had sparkly eyes, and a really pretty smile.

Not much had changed. 

Growing up, Esperanza had always hung out with Alya, Bucky, Daisy-Mel Jemma-May, and Peggy. Michael had never really felt a part of the group. He didn’t know whether it was because his skin was the darkest, or he was the only neurotypical boy in the group, or some other reason, but he’d never really felt like he belonged.

Esperanza, being his big sister, was supposed to look after him. Or, so he had thought. But she’d just said he was just being paranoid. So, he’d often spent the huge parties, which everyone attended, alone. That is, until Peggy took pity on him.

She told him that he wasn’t silly, that it was okay to feel the way he felt. But she reassured him that it wasn’t true; that they didn’t want him to be left out. He’d just shrugged and said that it was the only thing he could do with his feelings. So, she’d sat with him. She’d just sat quietly beside him as they’d stared into the pool.

From then on, Peggy had always sat with him at the parties, and had always been the first one by his side when he was alone. When he’d asked her why she always sat with him, rather than play with the others, her answer was simple:

“I’m your friend, Michael. Friends don’t ever let each other be alone.”

She was the first real friend he’d ever had. In time, the others had joined in what Peggy was doing, and had tailored their activities to suit him better. It had made him very happy, to know that his friends were willing to go the extra mile to make him feel included. But it was Peggy who had remained his closest and best friend. 

Now, as a seventeen-year-old, nothing much had changed. Except for those feelings. They’d become stronger. And the stronger the feelings became, the harder it was to concentrate.

Michael threw down his pen in frustration, causing Esperanza to look up from her book. She studied him for a few seconds and rolled her eyes.

“Don’t tell me you’re still upset about that Kara girl,” she sighed, shaking her head.

“I’m not!” he half-snapped. “I just...I can’t concentrate.”

Esperanza dog eared her book and turned to him, sensing something juicy. “So, what are you thinking about that’s making concentration so hard?”

“Peggy,” he sighed. Esperanza raised her eyebrows. He’d admitted about a month ago that he  _ might _ have a few romantic feelings for her.

“Peggy? But I thought she was just your best friend?”

“She is!” he growled, frustrated. He turned to his sister. “But haven’t you ever had a few romantic feelings for your best friend?”

Esperanza shrugged, her expression giving him a vague and unreadable answer. He groaned in frustration and stood up to begin pacing.

“Don’t try to act like you haven’t! Everyone’s a little bit in love with their best friend! Everyone wants to, to touch their hair, and rub their neck and kiss them, and wake up next to them…”

As he talked he imagined himself doing all of these things with Peggy. He stopped pacing and smiled, imagining himself  _ happy _ with her. It was similar to a dream sequence in a movie, and it abruptly stopped when he was hit with the realisation of the truth:

He was in love with Peggy Fitzsimmons. 

His eyes popped open and he was greeted by a smirking Esperanza. He groaned again, tiling his head back.

“Oh god I’m in deep, aren’t I?”

“Mmmhmm,” Esperanza said, positively gleeful about his confession. “About ninety feet deep.”

Michael threw his pen at her, and hit her on the forehead. “Not cool, Za.” 

“True, it’s not,” she said, grinning so widely, Michael hoped it would split her face in half. “The ocean of love is a very warm place.  _ Very _ warm.”

“Ugh, why do I talk to you?” Michael muttered, walking away.

“Because I’m your sister, and you have no one else  _ to _ talk to,” she answered. He stopped in his tracks. That wasn’t true, and she knew it. “Unless, of course, you’d like to talk to  _ Peggy _ about it.”

He growled and forced himself to walk away. Madre and Padre would flip their lids if he hit her now. But, in his defense, she was provoking him. He closed the door to his room with perhaps a little more force than necessary, and sighed as he flopped down on his bed. 

It was tough being in love with your best friend.


End file.
